The multi-targets mechanism of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of systemic lupus erythematosus based on network pharmacology

Reduced miR-99a-3p levels in systemic lupus erythematosus may promote B cell proliferation via NCAPG and the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway

BACKGROUND

Systemic lupus erythematosus is an immunologically dysregulated disease characterized by the presence of multiple autoantibodies. In SLE, B lymphocytes contribute to the dysregulated production of autoantibodies and cytokines. Recently, we discovered that miR-99a-3p binds to both EIF4EBP1 and NCAPG mRNA and that lowering miR-99a-3p can promote B cell autophagy in SLE by increasing EIF4EBP1 expression. However, the functions of miR-99a-3p and NCAPG in SLE have not been extensively investigated.

OBJECTIVE

This work aims to evaluate the levels of miR-99a-3p and NCAPG expression in SLE B cells and to determine whether the aberrant expression of miR-99a-3p and NCAPG contributes to the pathological mechanisms in SLE.

METHODS

B lymphocytes were obtained through immunomagnetic negative selection. Using RT-qPCR, miR-99a-3p and NCAPG mRNA expressions in B lymphocytes and in the BALL-1 cell line were measured. To determine the relative abundance of NCAPG, PI3K, p-PI3K, AKT, and p-AKT, we normalize them to the level of β-actin using Western blotting. Evaluation of miR-99a-3p and NCAPG's impact on cell proliferation was done utilizing CCK-8 assay. Using flow cytometry, the cell cycle and apoptosis were both measured.

RESULTS

Comparing SLE B cells to healthy controls, miR-99a-3p expression was significantly downregulated. Additionally, it was observed that SLE B cells had significantly higher NCAPG mRNA expression. Blocking miR-99a-3p expression in BALL-1 cells with an antagomir elevated NCAPG expression, facilitated PI3K/AKT pathway activation, improved cell proliferation, raised the fraction of S-phase cells, and prevented cell apoptosis. The opposite effects of upregulated miR-99a-3p levels on BALL-1 cells were observed by using an agomir. Furthermore, the effect of decreased miR-99a-3p expression on cell proliferation was partially mediated by elevating NCAPG levels and activating the PI3K/AKT pathway.

CONCLUSION

Our research indicates that lower miR-99a-3p expression in SLE B cells appears to boost B cell number via the NCAPG and PI3K/AKT pathways.

Network pharmacology and molecular docking to elucidate the common mechanism of hydroxychloroquine treatment in lupus nephritis and IgA nephropathy

OBJECTIVE

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), characterized by a broad effect on immune regulation, has been widely used in the treatment of autoimmune glomerulonephritis such as lupus nephritis (LN) and immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). The current research investigates whether HCQ plays a role in the treatment of LN and IgAN through common mechanisms since the pathogenesis of both LN and IgAN is closely related to immune complex deposition, complement activation, and ultimately inflammation.

METHODS

Seventy-two common targets were obtained related to the common mechanism of HCQ treatment of LN and IgAN. Targets associated with LN and IgAN were collected based on DisGeNET, GeneCards, and OMIM databases. Possible HCQ targets were obtained from the PubChem database and PharmMapper databases. The overlapping targets of HCQ ingredients, IgAN, and LN were discovered via the Venn 2.1.0 online platform. Through the DAVID database, the Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses were conducted. Cytoscape (v3.9.1) was used to build a protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Molecular docking was performed by using AutoDockTools 1.5.6 software and PyMol software to match the binding activity between HCQ and the 10 core targets.

RESULTS

The results showed that core targets (including MMP 2, PPARG, IL-2, MAPK14, MMP 9, and SRC), three signaling pathways (including the PI3K-Akt, AGE-RAGE, and MAPK), and cell differentiation (including Th1, Th2, and Th17) might be related to the body's immunity and inflammation. These results suggested that HCQ might act on targets and pathways involved in inflammation and immune regulation to exert a common effect on the treatment of LN and IgAN.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study provided new evidence for the protective mechanism and clinical utility of HCQ against LN and IgAN.

Hydroxychloroquine attenuates autoimmune hepatitis by suppressing the interaction of GRK2 with PI3K in T lymphocytes

Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is derivative of the heterocyclic aromatic compound quinoline, which has been used for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The central purpose of this study was to investigate therapeutic effects and inflammatory immunological molecular mechanism of HCQ in experimental autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Treatment with HCQ ameliorated hepatic pathologic damage, inflammatory infiltration, while promoted regulatory T cell (Treg) and down-regulated CD8+T cell differentiation in AIH mice induced by S-100 antigen. In vitro, HCQ also suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokine (IFN-γ, TNF-α, and IL-12) secretion, promoted anti-inflammatory cytokine (TGF-β1) secretion. HCQ mainly impaired T cell lipid metabolism but not glycolysis to promote Treg differentiation and function. Mechanistically, HCQ down-regulated GRK2 membrane translocation in T cells, inhibited GRK2-PI3K interaction to reduce the PI3K recruiting to the membrane, followed by suppressing the phosphorylation of PI3K-AKT-mTOR signal. Pretreating T cells with paroxetine, a GRK2 inhibitor, disturbed HCQ effect to T cells. HCQ also reversed the activation of the PI3K-AKT axis by 740 Y-P (PI3K agonist). Meanwhile, HCQ inhibited the PI3K-AKT-mTOR, JAK2-STAT3-SOCS3 and increased the AMPK signals in the liver and T cells of AIH mice. In conclusion, HCQ exhibited specific and potent therapeutic effects on AIH and attendant liver injury, which was attributed to HCQ acted on GRK2 translocation, inhibited metabolism-related PI3K-AKT and inflammation-related JAK2-STAT3 signal in T lymphocytes, thereby modulating lipid metabolism of T cell function to regulate Treg differentiation and function.

Calycosin prevents bone loss induced by hindlimb unloading

Bone loss induced by microgravity exposure seriously endangers the astronauts’ health, but its countermeasures still have certain limitations. The study aims to find potential protective drugs for the prevention of the microgravity-induced bone loss. Here, we utilized the network pharmacology approach to discover a natural compound calycosin by constructing the compound-target interaction network and analyzing the topological characteristics of the network. Furthermore, the hind limb unloading (HLU) rats’ model was conducted to investigate the potential effects of calycosin in the prevention of bone loss induced by microgravity. The results indicated that calycosin treatment group significantly increased the bone mineral density (BMD), ameliorated the microstructure of femoral trabecular bone, the thickness of cortical bone and the biomechanical properties of the bone in rats, compared that in the HLU group. The analysis of bone turnover markers in serum showed that both the bone formation markers and bone resorption markers decreased after calycosin treatment. Moreover, we found that bone remodeling-related cytokines in serum including IFN-γ, IL-6, IL-8, IL-12, IL-4, IL-10 and TNF-α were partly recovered after calycosin treatment compared with HLU group. In conclusion, calycosin partly recovered hind limb unloading-induced bone loss through the regulation of bone remodeling. These results provided the evidence that calycosin might play an important role in maintaining bone mass in HLU rats, indicating its promising application in the treatment of bone loss induced by microgravity.

Targets Exploration of Hydroxychloroquine for Pigmentation and Cell Protection Effect in Melanocytes: The Clue for Vitiligo Treatment

Objective

The treatment of vitiligo is often challenging to dermatologists. There is ample evidence to suggest that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is effective for vitiligo treatment; nonetheless, the underlying mechanism remains unknown. In the present study, we sought to uncover the molecular targets of HCQ by an integrated network-based pharmacologic and transcriptomic approach.

Methods

The potential targets of HCQ were retrieved from databases based on the crystal structure. Targets related to vitiligo were screened and intersected with potential targets of HCQ. A protein-protein interaction network of the intersected targets was generated. Interactions between the targets were verified by molecular docking. Moreover, human vitiligo immortalized melanocytes (PIG3V) were evaluated after treatment with HCQ (1μg/mL) for 24h. The total RNA of PIG3V was extracted and determined by RNA-seq transcriptomics for differential gene expression analysis. Network pharmacology was then used to identify the relationships between putative targets of HCQ and differentially expressed genes.

Results

Molecular docking analysis revealed four putative key targets (ACHE, PNMT, MC₁R, and VDR) of HCQ played important roles in vitiligo treatment. According to the transcriptomic results, the melanosomal biogenesis-related gene BLOC1S5 was upregulated 138005.020 fold after HCQ treatment. Genes related to protein repair (MSRB3) and anti-ultraviolet (UV) effect (UVSSA) were upregulated 4.253 and 2.603 fold, respectively, after HCQ treatment.

Conclusion

The expression of the BLOC1S5 gene is significantly upregulated, indicating upregulated melanosomal biogenesis after HCQ treatment. In addition, HCQ yields a protective effect on melanocytes by upregulating genes associated with damaged protein repair (MSRB3) and anti-UV effect (UVSSA). The protective effects of HCQ are mediated by binding to putative targets ACHE, PNMT, MC₁R, and VDR according to network pharmacology and docking verification.

Systematic Understanding of Anti-Aging Effect of Coenzyme Q10 on Oocyte Through a Network Pharmacology Approach

BACKGROUND

Maternal oocyte aging is strongly contributing to age-related decline in female fertility. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) exerts positive effects in improving aging-related deterioration of oocyte quality, but the exact mechanism is unclear.

OBJECTIVE

To reveal the system-level mechanism of CoQ10's anti-aging effect on oocytes based on network pharmacology.

METHODS

This study adopted a systems network pharmacology approach, including target identification, data integration, network and module construction, bioinformatics analysis, molecular docking, and molecular dynamics simulation.

RESULT

A total of 27 potential therapeutic targets were screened out. Seven hub targets (PPARA, CAT, MAPK14, SQSTM1, HMOX1, GRB2, and GSR) were identified. Functional and pathway enrichment analysis indicated that these 27 putative targets exerted therapeutic effects on oocyte aging by regulating signaling pathways (e.g., PPAR, TNF, apoptosis, necroptosisn, prolactin, and MAPK signaling pathway), and are involved oxidation-reduction process, mitochondrion, enzyme binding, reactive oxygen species metabolic process, ATP binding, among others. In addition, five densely linked functional modules revealed the potential mechanisms of CoQ10 in improving aging-related deterioration of oocyte quality are closely related to antioxidant, mitochondrial function enhancement, autophagy, anti-apoptosis, and immune and endocrine system regulation. The molecular docking study reveals that seven hub targets have a good binding affinity towards CoQ10, and molecular dynamics simulation confirms the stability of the interaction between the hub targets and the CoQ10 ligand.

CONCLUSION

This network pharmacology study revealed the multiple mechanisms involved in the anti-aging effect of CoQ10 on oocytes. The molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation provide evidence that CoQ10 may act on these hub targets to fight against oocytes aging.

Analysis of platelet-derived growth factor receptor A and oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 markers following Hydroxychloroquine administration in animal induced multiple sclerosis model

It has been shown that following demyelination, Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells (OPCs) migrate to the lesion site and begin to proliferate, and differentiate. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on the expression of OLIG-2 and PDGFR-α markers during the myelination process. C57BL/6 mice were fed cuprizone pellets for 5 weeks to induce demyelination and return to a normal diet for 1 week to stimulate remyelination. During the Phase I all of the animals except CPZ and Vehicle groups were exposed to HCQ (2.5, 10, and 100 mg/kg) via drinking water. At the end of the study, animals were euthanized, perfused and the brain samples were assessed for myelination and immunohistochemistry evaluation. What is remarkable is the high rate of Olig2 + cells in the groups treated with 10 and 100 mg/kg HCQ in the demyelination phase and its decreasing trend in the remyelination phase. However, there was no significant difference between groups during phase I and Phase II based on the percentage of olig-2+/total cells in the corpus callosum region. The number of PDGFR-α+ cells in the group treated with 10 mg/kg HCQ was significant in the first phase (p value < 0.05). Considering that the 100 mg/kg HCQ group had the highest level of PDGFR-α as well as the highest level of myelin repair in LFB staining, it could be inferred that it was the most effective dose in inducing proliferation and migration of OPCs.

The multi-target mechanism of Cyclosporin A in the treatment of vitiligo based on network pharmacology

Network pharmacology is an emerging discipline that designs drugs based on systems biology theory and biological system network analysis. Here, we applied network pharmacology to analyze the multi-target mechanism of Cyclosporin A in the treatment of vitiligo First, we predicted the targets of Cyclosporin A. Second, we obtained the genes related to vitiligo from the database. Third, we constructed the PPI network of the mutual genes between Cyclosporin A and vitiligo and used gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) to analyze. Finally, we verified the prediction of potential targets through a docking study with Cyclosporin A. We found that there were 15 shared target genes between Cyclosporin A and vitiligo. We analyzed these 15 genes by Cytoscape and obtained a network diagram of 885 nodes. Through screening and molecular docking, PRKDC, CUL7, CUL1, HSPA8, HSPA4, and SIRT7 were the most likely multi-target mechanism of Cyclosporin A in the treatment of vitiligo. In our study, Cyclosporin A might not only affect the repair of DNA strands by targeting PRKDC, but also affected the innate and adaptive immune function of vitiligo patients by the targets of CUL1, CUL7, and HSP70. In addition, Cyclosporin A might promote the repigmentation of vitiligo by adjusting the expression of SIRT7.

Melatonin: Multi-Target Mechanism Against Diminished Ovarian Reserve Based on Network Pharmacology

BACKGROUND

Diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) significantly increases the risk of female infertility and contributes to reproductive technology failure. Recently, the role of melatonin in improving ovarian reserve (OR) has attracted widespread attention. However, details on the pharmacological targets and mechanisms of melatonin-improved OR remain unclear.

OBJECTIVE

A systems pharmacology strategy was proposed to elucidate the potential therapeutic mechanism of melatonin on DOR at the molecular, pathway, and network levels.

METHODS

The systems pharmacological approach consisted of target identification, data integration, network construction, bioinformatics analysis, and molecular docking.

RESULTS

From the molecular perspective, 26 potential therapeutic targets were identified. They participate in biological processes related to DOR development, such as reproductive structure development, epithelial cell proliferation, extrinsic apoptotic signaling pathway, PI3K signaling, among others. Eight hub targets (MAPK1, AKT1, EGFR, HRAS, SRC, ESR1, AR, and ALB) were identified. From the pathway level, 17 significant pathways, including the PI3K-Akt signaling pathway and the estrogen signaling pathway, were identified. In addition, the 17 signaling pathways interacted with the 26 potential therapeutic targets to form 4 functional modules. From the network point of view, by regulating five target subnetworks (aging, cell growth and death, development and regeneration, endocrine and immune systems), melatonin could exhibit anti-aging, anti-apoptosis, endocrine, and immune system regulation effects. The molecular docking results showed that melatonin bound well to all hub targets.

CONCLUSION

This study systematically and intuitively illustrated the possible pharmacological mechanisms of OR improvement by melatonin through anti-aging, anti-apoptosis, endocrine, and immune system regulation effects.

Targets of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A network pharmacology study

OBJECTIVE

This study was performed to investigate the multi-targets mechanism of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

METHODS

The predicted targets of HCQ and the proteins related to RA were returned from databases. Followed by protein-protein interaction (PPI) network, the intersection of the two group of proteins was studied. Furthermore, gene ontology (GO) and KyotoEncyclopediaofGenesandGenomes (KEGG) enrichment was used to analyse these proteins in a macro perspective. Finally, the candidate targets were checked by molecular docking.

RESULTS

The results suggested that HCQ in the treatment of RA was mainly associated with 4 targets that are smoothened homolog (SMO), sphingosine kinase (SPHK) 1, SPHK2 and gatty-acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), with their related 3276 proteins' network which regulate ErbB, HIF-1, NF-κB, FoxO, chemokines, MAPK, PI3K/Akt pathways and so forth. Biological process were mainly focused in the regulation of cell activation, myeloid leukocyte activation, regulated exocytosis and so forth. Molecular docking analysis showed that hydrogen bonding and π-π stacking were the main forms of chemical force.

CONCLUSIONS

Our research provides protein targets affected by HCQ in the treatment of RA. SMO, SPHK1, SPHK2 and FAAH involving 3276 proteins become the multi-targets mechanism of HCQ in the treatment of RA.